Uri Rosenwaks' "Garbage Country" Premieres at Eco-Cinema

This is some advance publicity for a film I haven’t yet seen, but it comes from a highly talented Israeli director Uri Rosenwaks, who made ‘The Film Class’ (2006) about the black Bedouin tribes of Rahat two years ago, which I highly reccommend as an illuminating portrait of a fascinating and little-known part of society, or society within a society.

If you are feeling equally sore (as we at GP are) about the amount of trash left behind this week after Independence Day in Gan Sacher in Jerusalem, at the beach and in the forests, this film may show a lighter side to littering, or fire all us environmentalists up even further.

‘Garbage Country’ (2008) premieres on cinema screens this week at the Jerusalem Cinematecque’s ‘Eco-Cinema’ Film Festival.

From the publicity material:

Garbage Country’ isn’t an ‘ecological’ film: it asks one simple question: why do we Israeli’s choose to spend our lives in dirt? In garbage! How do we as a Nation that holds itself as a patriotic Nation, how do we treat our country with such a demonstrable lack of caring, almost an arrogance?

On the occasion of Israel’s 60th, I went out on a journey to examine our vulgar habits. Armed with a hidden camera I began to document the experience of our public lives – looking at the dirt and at the lack of our mutual respect. I filmed in streets, parks, hotels, schools; I even brought testimony from a concentration camp. Even there, Israeli’s don’t stop littering!

I filmed the people making the mess, and those clearing up after them; those who care, and those who care about nothing at all. For a year I tried to clarify why Israelis behave like this at home and abroad.

The result is a sad film, but also a very funny one that brings the reality of our lives from a slightly different angle: from the height of the rubbish!

‘Garbage Country’ is at the Jerusalem Cinematecque this Thursday May, 15th ay at 9PM.

This is an important film because it reveals an attitude not just a behavior. The lack of civility and courtesy at the core of littering is also at the core of traffic deaths, pushing in line, rude teenagers, smoking in restaurants, shouting on cellphones, and a gruff, discourteous “I don’t care about anyone but myself” temperment that is undermining Israeli society.

Hovevei Zion Hanikia was featured in the film as the only green group in Jerusalem dedicated to anti-littering. Contact: sharona@hoveveizionnikia, 0526 280 882